1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for loading a cassette containing therein a stack of sheet material for reproduction into a copying machine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In copying or reproduction machines which have so far been widely used in various offices of firms, corporations, etc. material for reproduction such as paper is generally formed in sheets of a predetermined size, and a plurality of such sheets are fed one at a time into the copying machine, whereby an original image is reproduced thereon. Since the reproduction operation can be carried out continuously, a stack of sheet material is placed in a feed mechanism, out of which it is automatically fed sheet by sheet into the copying machine. When the stack of sheet material is completely used up, or when the paper sheets are to be loaded on or unloaded from the feeding mechanism to change the paper size, it is necessary to neatly arrange each sheet of the stack. For this purpose, it has generally been practiced to place the sheets in a cassette which is removable from the copying machine. When using the cassette if it becomes necessary to change the paper size, or to replenish the copying paper in the reproduction machine, an operator can simply replace the cassette.
When the cassette is loaded in the copying machine, a part of the stack of sheet material comes into contact with a feed machanism. For instance, when feed rollers for feeding the sheets in the cassette contact with the stack of sheets during the cassette loading, there occur such difficulties that the edge of each sheet, particularly that of the uppermost one, is bent, creased, or torn. Further, when such defective sheet is fed, it is wound around the roller, or broken. To avoid such troubles and difficulties, the conventional reproduction machine is constructed in such a manner that the feed mechansim may be removed, prior to the cassette loading to a position distant from a passage way, along which the cassette moves. In this construction, however, the removing device in the feed mechanism becomes complicated, and an additional device for maintaining the feed mechanism in a state of having been removed during the cassette loading is also required with the consequence that the apparatus as a whole becomes far more complicated.